Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technique for transmitting image data from an image forming apparatus.
Description of the Related Art
An image forming apparatus has been widely used for integrating functions such as copy, network print, fax, scan, and box. The image forming apparatus is referred to as a “combined machine” or a “multi function peripherals (MFP)”.
In addition, in recent years, various functions for transmitting data of an image to an external device such as a function for transmitting an email and a function for uploading data to an external server have been provided in the image forming apparatus.
In this way, in recent years, the image forming apparatus can transmit the data of the image to the external device by using various methods.
Even when the data is transmitted to the same person, an identifier to be specified is different for each transmission method. For example, when the data is transmitted via a facsimile, a facsimile number is specified. When the data is transmitted via the email, an email address is specified. When the data is transmitted to a folder provided in a server, a network path of the folder (for example, uniform resource locator (URL)) is specified.
Traditionally, these identifiers (facsimile number, email address, network path, and the like) are often recorded in an address book.
The address book can be managed by the image forming apparatus. However, it is possible that the address book is managed by the server and the image forming apparatus accesses the server and refers to the address book as necessary.
Especially, in an environment in which a plurality of image forming apparatuses is used (for example, office of company), it is useful to integrally manage the address book by the server and share it by the image forming apparatuses. Further, with the growth of cloud computing, there is a case where the address book is shared by not only the image forming apparatuses but also a different kind of an information apparatus such as a smart phone and a tablet computer.
The image forming apparatus may be shared by a number of users. When the address book is managed by the image forming apparatus, a larger storage area is needed than that in a case where the image forming apparatus is used for private.
When the address book is managed by the server, storage media such as a hard disk of the image forming apparatus can be reduced.
When the address book is managed by the server and the image forming apparatus accesses the server and refers to the address book as necessary, these merits can be obtained.
However, any malfunction may cause a case where the image forming apparatus cannot access the address book. In this case, the following solutions have been proposed.
An MFP which can communicate with the server via a LAN obtains address information corresponding to an address ID included in the registered transfer setting from the server and transfers the received image data. Further, the MFP determines a cause when the address information cannot be obtained. When a communication error with the server causes the problem, the MFP does not invalidate the registered transfer setting. When no address information held in the server causes the problem, the MFP invalidates the registered transfer setting (JP 2012-70342 A).
Further, the following network system which can change the destination and transmission method of information according to the operation of the user has been proposed. In the network system in which a plurality of terminals which is a network compatible apparatus is connected to a server terminal via the network, when a terminal specified at the transmission to the terminal on the network cannot receive or output data, this situation is informed an operator before a transmission terminal performs transmission (JP 2005-269094 A).
In addition, the following image transmission device has been proposed. The image transmission device includes an input unit which inputs an image, an authentication unit which authenticates a user, an acquisition unit which obtains address information corresponding to the user authenticated by the authentication unit, a holding unit which holds an address information group including a plurality of pieces of address information set as a transmission address of the image, a transmission unit which transmits the image by using each piece of the address information included in the address information group according to an instruction to start transmission from the user, an operation key which sets the address information corresponded to the user authenticated by the authentication unit as the transmission address, and an addition unit which adds the address information obtained by the acquisition unit to the address information group according to an operation to the operation key (JP 2011-160463 A).
However, according to the traditional method, when an access to the address book managed by the server is not available, data cannot be transmitted to a target destination. In this case, conventionally, the user needs to check the facsimile number or the email address of the destination and input the identifier character by character by operating numeric keys and the like.